The Last “Best Viral Video Of The Year” List Before The Mayan Apocalypse Shows How Far We’ve Come. Not

In this, the last year of life as we know it before the Mayan Apocalypse, let us now reflect on the evolution of end-of-the-year “Best of” lists. For as long as humanity has existed, man has felt the need to sum up the past year in such a concise manner, usually about 10 items, reflective of the culture of the day.

We can imagine what the lists must have looked like during antiquity, “10 Best Togas of 750 BC,” or during the Dark Ages, “10 Best Plagues of 1349.” Fast forward a few hundred years to our modern era and the lists look something like the“10 Best Songs of” or “10 Best Films of.”

But now, at the end of the road, just before it’s lights out for everyone, mankind has managed to squeeze out one more list to add to our collective consciousness. Thanks to the birth of YouTube in 2005, we now have “Best Of” list for viral videos.

Yup. This whole journey of our civilization peaked with a Korean dude pretending like he’s riding around on a horse. With the most likes in not only 2012, but in YouTube history, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is the high watermark of humanity, according to the “Best Viral Videos of 2012” list just put out by the LA Times.

Number 2 on the list? If you said Gotye, you’d be close, but you’d be wrong. That honor belongs to Walk Off The Earth (better known colloquially as “5 people, 1 guitar” which is better than “2 girls 1…” wait, that’s 2007. NEVER MIND) and their cover of Mr. G’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” Our favorite part? The dude on the right who does pretty much nothing except hold the neck of the guitar and pluck a few strings every once in a while

Number 3? Well, you’ll just have to check out the complete list for yourself. But here’s a hint: it ultimately ends with a naked dude screaming nonsense in the streets of San Diego.

As for the Mayan Apocalypse, well, we have until the end of the week to redeem ourselves with a list worthy of the end of time.